YouTube released a new headline data point, suggesting that there were more than 1 billion viewers of podcast content a month in January. It also repeated that 400 million monthly hours of podcast watching were consumed on TV sets. Putting the 1 billion number in context, Spotify claimed just 120mn monthly podcast listeners in November. Apple Podcasts is likely to be smaller in terms of monthly listeners, according to Podtrac in Jan 2023: but Apple Podcasts had a significantly higher share of downloads. Worth remembering, too, that a listener to a second of “podcast” content on YouTube – even automatically-played content – will count towards the 1 billion figure, irrespective of the amount of downloads they make, or the time they spend with podcasts. Reach doesn’t translate to time spent. However, Edison Research said in Oct 2024 that, of all the podcast platforms, YouTube was used “most often” to listen to podcasts.

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